Tips to install RPM packages in bootc image builds

Linux Penguin with RPM packages boxes in a (bootc) Container

Some RPM packages are difficult to install into a Container. This can be a big problem, especially when building a bootc image..

RHEL Subscription Entitlement for bootc in OCI image

Subscription entitlement bootc details. Picture of container with whale tale and paper money

Building a bootc image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) “Image Mode” requires Red Hat Subscription Entitlement details. This can be tricky to get from the build server. Let’s fix that.

Ansible and bootc

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Ansible is not ideal for use with bootc, but for anyone with a lot of Ansible automation it’s hard to pivot to “the next thing”. Let’s use Ansible anyway..

Get bootc package version changes from SBOM

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To know what’s changing in a new bootc (Bootable Container) image use container tooling to generate a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

Bootstrapping bootc using Fedora CoreOS

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Getting bootc initially installed is a little different since it needs an ostree based OS. You could install a bootc image into any running Linux host, but I’ve been playing with Fedora CoreOS and using Ignition/Butane to configure Fedora CoreOS. So let’s use Fedora CoreOS on the host for bootstrapping bootc.

Build RHEL UBI containers with previous package versions

Red Hat UBI (Universal Base Images) are great. Except when you need to install a pervious package version, you can’t. By default RHEL Universal Base Images ship with only the latest version of packages. So how can you “rollback” if one of the package apps has a problem?

bootc (Bootable Containers): One Container Image to rule them all

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bootc has the potential to be groundbreaking (for Enterprise server Linux). A scalable and Atomic OS for servers.

Run different Linux program based on current directory (using Bash shell)

This provides a way for using different versions of a program based on the current directory name. By adding this example code to the .bashrc file, users can run a unique terraform version based on the directory name.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is the last Raspberry Pi you need (Why the Raspberry Pi 5 sucks)

The Raspberry Pi 5 is critiqued for its high price and limited HEVC GPU video decoding. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ is recommended for small projects, while a Beelink Mini S12 Pro is suggested as an alternative that offers more power and comparable price without being on pre-order. For those wary of expenditure, a cheap laptop is also a viable option.

Docker and Trouble with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: iptables

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (RHEL 9) and Docker don’t get along very well. Running a container that requires older iptables (and not nftables) can be a problem.